In Response to Tito in St. Louis? : I find it very interesting that as much as Tito has been knocked by some around here, that every open manager's position has folks talking about how happy they would be to get him! There are those in Chicago who set aside a long standing desire to have Sandberg manage in the favor of Tito coming there. There are those in St Louis - or at least sports talking heads are saying - that Tito would be a perfect fit there. While I am not pleased at the way things ended here, I am very pleased that he is being shown respect by many others. Good for you, Tito! I hope that you do well, no matter what the endeavour! Be happpy! :: :: :::Posted by SinceYaz

Tito managed the Phillies for awhile - not the greatest of experienced, true, but but still in the junir circuit. I have no doubt he could manage in St. Louis and do very well indeed. And great for him if he does. He deserves the chance.Posted by summerof67

Craze; I think that the rest of the country thinks Boston fans that hate on tito are out of their minds..From what I hear, the majority blame the players and the owners for not giving the main responsibility to the players instead of firing everyone else..As far as Tito in St.L? I think he would do a good job wherever he goes.Its a good fit IMO..

Finally another coaching job opens up for Tito (aside from the Sox) and it's a heavily veteran team with a rich tradition that knows how to win. Looks like a great fit for him. Maybe good things do happen to good people. Posted by wfdog

I could be wrong but I think Tito's reputation may have taken a huge hit in Boston. After losing control in the clubhouse of the task in hand some teams will probably look at Tito in Philly as much as managing a team like Boston with oddles of talent.

St Lou seems to be a better fit than the Cubs. Francona seems to be a better captain for a contending team than a rebuilding one, and the Cubs have a ways to go to be NL contenders, assuming Theo can get them there.

In Response to Re: Tito in St. Louis? : We had championships waiting for over 80 years. Some of the finest managers of the day. Some of the best talent. The managers in the 20's didn't get it done. The managers in the 30's, when Mom and Dad graduated HS, college, post graduate programs, didn't get it done. The managers in the shadow of the second world war didn't get it done. The managers in my birth decade didn't get it done. None of he managers with Teddy Ballgame got it done. The managers during my grade school years and the Impossible Dream team didn't get it done. My favorite Yaz playued for over 20 seasons, and never had a manager who got it done .... and what happened when the Sox won the pennant? But not the World Series? What happened in '86? We should have won. What? The manager wasn't good enough? He GOT US THERE!!! Those were CERTAINLY Championships waiting to happen. Only, we just didn't quite get there. Not with Pudge Fisk in game 6, not with Manny, Papi and Pedro .... What galls you so to give this guy credit for getting our team to a place no one else did? Who gives a flip if he had a team ready for it? They were ready the season before -really, really ready - what happened? They were ready the season before that. Your guile is absurd. :: :: :::Posted by SinceYaz

1941 is the poster boy for the fellowship of the miserable. He isn't happy until he isn't happy!

I am thinking he is in a position to take the year off. Those ads for Bigelow Tea plus the W.B.Mason commercials likely gave him a little financial cushion. Don't expect him to join any of the "occupy" groups , he may not be in the 1% but I'll bet he's not hurting for cash enough to jump on the first opening that comes along.Posted by ZILLAGOD

He made well over $10M in salary as bosox manger, I'm pretty sure that puts him in the 1%.

baseball haS been very very very good to him- medicore player who underachieved, dad who hooked him up as a legacy, flopped in philly, inherited a sox team one boneheaded move away from a title, literally rocked back and forth to two titles, loses playoff in epic historic fashion, gets rewaRDED by being inked by world series winning team (in the one town that will be too polite to criticize him)...lololololwho says there is no God?

Fine I will knock on Tito a little more. If Pujols remains you can expect Tito to rest Albert every Sunday (or in Tito's book Sub-day ) regardless of the situation, and you can expect Holliday to be rested every Monday - effectively the Cardinals would be without 1 of their 2 best hitters twice a week. You can further expect Tito to nurture Adam Wainright's return from surgery all season long, never letting Adam surpass 99 pitches or 5 innings (whichever comes first). You can also expect the same cautionary treatment to pitchers like Chris Carpenter. Carpenter had 4 complete games in 2011 and is a champ, however Tito will ensure that Chris never pitches even 8 innings let alone 9 in any one game. This is exactly how it would be in MO. under Tito's management.Posted by BurritoT

Really? This is a ridiculous exaggeration. There were 4 players on the 2011 team who you could reasonably expect to be on the roster every day, Gonzales(159 games), Pedroia(159 games), Ellsbury(158 games even though he was injured for 2 or 3 games) and Ortiz (146 games, also injured and didn't play in interleague). Francona didn't rest anyone every sunday or even every 3rd sunday.

St Lou seems to be a better fit than the Cubs. Francona seems to be a better captain for a contending team than a rebuilding one, and the Cubs have a ways to go to be NL contenders, assuming Theo can get them there. Posted by CablesWyndBairn

I agree but if the Cards lose Albert without as close a replacement as possible they will struggle next season in my opinion. Too many years of Larusso and Albert to recover from quickly.

He is the best of any field you put together... but not sure if he can manage National League ball.... I don't think the Sox sacrificed more than 15 times in any of his years as manager. He has a tendency to run the offense waiting for the home run to happen and when it doesn't it's many long nights..Posted by jackyldo

Jack,

Francona has been in the game for a long time and didn't have too much trouble with the NL game during his tenure in Philly, nor while with the Sox during intrasquad and went 4-0 in NL parks in the World Series.

Most AL teams that play "small ball" are ones that have too based on the lack of fire power in their lineup and must rely on manufacturing runs score...

If you look at the construction of the lineup with Ellsbury at the top of the lineup with Pedrioa behind him. With Ells on first, if they had Pedrioa bunting more, more often than not the opposition would take the bat of out Gonzalez hand, walk him and then setup a douple play with Youk in the box. I'd be more inclined to put on a hit and run and give Pedrioa the opportunty to put the ball in play...After the top two...Gonzalez, Youk & Papi don't get paid to bunt and when they're on base it's tough to bunt them over becasue A they don't have a ton of speed and even when they reach 2nd it might take two hits to score them...Thus the odds aren't in the favor of sacrificing and giving up an out...

the Sox use the sac bunt with descretion, and often it late in games where they're trying to plate 1 run to win the game and in that situation they can then use a pinch runner to improve the odds of successfully executing the sacrifice and moving the runner into scoring position, who once there can score on a single or a sac fly...